Understanding Apps and Multi-Tenancy
What is a CometChat App?
A CometChat app represents a self-contained chat environment with its own users, groups, messages, roles, and configurations. Each app operates independently with isolated data.Multi-App vs Multi-Tenant Setup
Multi-App Setup: Create separate CometChat apps with independent billing plans and configurations. Best suited for:- Different products within an organization
- Separate departments with distinct P&Ls
- Applications requiring completely independent billing and metrics
- SaaS platforms serving multiple customers
- Aggregator applications
- Vertical-specific software (education, healthcare, etc.)
Authentication
All Management API requests must be authenticated using the key and secret provided when multi-tenancy is enabled for your account. Include these credentials in the request headers:Common Use Cases
Multi-tenancy works well for scenarios like:- Education platforms: Each school operates as a separate app, with teachers, students, and parents communicating within their school’s isolated environment
- Business communication tools: Each business or franchise gets its own app, keeping employee and customer conversations separate
- White-label solutions: Provide branded chat experiences to multiple clients while managing everything from a single account
How Multi-Tenancy Works
When multi-tenancy is enabled for your account:- A base app is created and associated with your billing plan
- All additional apps created in the account consume from the base app’s quotas (MAU, PCC, Voice/Video minutes)
- Usage across all apps is pooled and billed together through the base app
- All apps inherit features and configurations from the base plan
App Management APIs
Once multi-tenancy is enabled, you receive App Management credentials (key and secret) that allow you to programmatically:- Create and configure new apps
- Enable/disable extensions
- Manage app team members
- Configure webhooks
- Manage widgets